Sixteen Years and Done!

[John of Japan]

Not to brag...but you bragged anyways.

Brother John, I truly love the time you spent in Japan bringing the Christ to those ppl. May God continue to bless and use you to fulfill His purpose(s). Soli Deo Gloria.

Thank you, friend.

 

[John of Japan]

Amazing, simply amazing and wonderful.

Your (and all who assisted) work will probably go largely unnoticed by this world but will no doubt be heralded in heaven.

Japan - truly a valley of dry bones to whom you are giving the water of life and manna - the bread from heaven.
The Good News of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, God come in the flesh.

Thank You John.

I will be delighted if even just one soul comes to Christ through this translation. And of course I hope for many Christians to be strengthend.

 

[HankD]

Yes it does, since we were going strictly by the TR. I'm a follower of Skopos Theory, and our Skopos was to produce a translation from the Scrivener TR. For more about the theory: New Translation Theories


Not really. There is nothing like it in either Buddhism or Shinto. The typical Japanese has to get saved before understanding the trinity.

Thank you John.

Congratulations again, A marvelous accomplishment.

 

[HankD]

I will be delighted if even just one soul comes to Christ through this translation. And of course I hope for many Christians to be strengthened.

I'll be praying to that end now whenever I think of you.

HankD

 

[Yeshua1]

I will be delighted if even just one soul comes to Christ through this translation. And of course I hope for many Christians to be strengthend.

My friend was a missionary in Japan for over 3 years years for campus crusade, and he saw 7 nationals come to faith in jesus Christ!

 

[John of Japan]

Another difficult rendering for us where we broke new ground is the Greek oinos, usually "wine" in the KJV. Now, it is my understanding that in 1611 the English word "wine" included both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic liquids.

The typical Japanese rendering is 葡萄酒 (budohshu), with the third Chinese character making it always alcoholic. Interesting enough, the first complete Bible in Japanese, the Moto Yaku, used that character alone (sake, pronounced sa-keh), in at least one passage on the Lord's Supper. Now the character by itself (酒) can mean booze, but usually means the famous Japanese rice wine. This is problematic--would you have "sake" for the Lord's Supper? Or what should we say about "new wine" as "new sake" in the NT?

So, we wanted to find an ambiguous alternative, one that forced the reader to choose whether an alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage was meant. Uncle Miya helped us out with 葡萄の果汁, or budoh no kajuu, meaning a liquid from the grape. (Actual grape juice is usually the loan word グレープジュース, or gurehpu juusu.)

Postscript: One failed translation effort from the KJV instead of the Greek decided to follow the 1611 KJV exactly and rendered it ワイン. Unfortunately that loan word always means modern alcoholic wine, so the teetotaler KJV advocate ended up advocating drinking alcohol in his translation.

 

[Squire Robertsson]

The relevant post (#16) from the thread cited below.

Skopos Theory​

Skopos (skopoV) is the Greek word for “goal,” occurring in the New Testament only in Phil. 3:14 as “mark” in the KJV. Skopos theory was formulated by translation studies scholar Hans Vermeer. In his words, “The word skopos, then, is a technical term for the aim or purpose of a translation” (The Translation Studies Reader, ed. by Lawrence Venute, 2nd Ed., p. 227). Again, Vermeer says, “The aim of any translational action, and the mode in which it is to be realized, are negotiated with the client who commissions the action. A precise specification of aim and mode is essential for the translator” (ibid). So to a skopos theorist, whether or not the translation achieves its goal is more important than its equivalence (formal, dynamic, optimal, etc.) to the original.

According to Giuseppe Palumbo, “The skopos…is the overriding factor governing either the choices and decisions made during the translation process or the criteria based on which a translation is assessed” (Key Terms in Translation Studies, p. 107). Edwin Gentzler puts it this way: “For most practical purposes, then, the Skopos is not located in either the source or the target text of culture; rather it is negotiated between the client and the translator, with reference to both the source text and receiving audience” (Contemporary Translation Theories, p. 73).

This is the secular theory of translation most likely to resonate with the professional translator, since Vermeer views him or her as an expert. The basic premise of the theory is that the translator should (and usually does) translate according to the purpose of his contract. In the case of a professional in the secular world, this often means that he will translate with the goals given him by the contract he signed, or the goals delineated by his boss, or those given him by his client if he is an independent translator.

Earlier this year I was asked to correct an English translation of the information brochure put out by the local water treatment plant. The goal was to take my Japanese client’s work and put it into good, grammatical, smooth English. I wanted it to read like it had been written in English so that the reader was not distracted by what we call Japlish—a mixed up version of English influenced by Japanese syntax and loan words from English. I thus operated with a skopos, a definite goal that did not limit me to strictly literal renderings. Because of this, more than once I did a free rendering of the original text, something I rarely do in translating the Greek New Testament. In skopos theory, the tools and methods of the translator depend on his goal. My goal, in this case, was a faithful yet readable translation of the brochure, so I worked accordingly. As Vermeer writes, “The skopos can also help to determine whether the source text needs to be ‘translated’, ‘paraphrased’ or completely ‘re-edited’” (ibid, p. 237).

This theory has not penetrated much yet into the world of Bible translation scholars. One of the most recent books on Bible translating, Translating the New Testament (ed. by Stanley Porter and Mark Boda, Eerdmans, 2009), does not even mention the theory or Vermeer, even though Porter has a whole chapter on modern theories, “Assessing Translation Theory: Beyond Literal and Dynamic Equivalence.” Surely Porter knows about this theory, since he mentions “the functionalist approach” (p. 128; different from Nida’s functional equivalence), which includes skopos theory. However, he apparently doesn’t see its relevance to Bible translation.

As far as I know Dr. Cristiane Nord, the leading advocate of the theory next to Vermeer himself, is the only scholar writing about skopos theory and Bible translation. I wrote Dr. Nord asking for her article, “Functions of Orality in the Translation of New Testament and Early Christian Texts: a skopos-theoretical perspective.” She graciously answered and sent me not only that article but another as well. Rather than misrepresent her writings, I’m not going to discuss these articles in this post, but will post some about them later.

When skopos theory does penetrate the ivory (or maybe just brick) towers of the Bible translation scholars’ world, how will it influence the Bible translator? First of all, it should make him consider his goals in a much deeper way. Is he aiming at a tool for evangelism first of all, or a faithful rendering of the original text? Secondly, he ought to be prayerfully thinking about the original Author of the Bible, and how that Author would have him translate. His view of Biblical inspiration will then shape his methods and what tools he uses. However it happens, the translator should grow simply by being aware of the theory.

Yes it does, since we were going strictly by the TR. I'm a follower of Skopos Theory, and our Skopos was to produce a translation from the Scrivener TR. For more about the theory: New Translation Theories SNIP

 

[Tom Bryant]

John,
Congratulations on a hard job well done. There is so much involved in translation that goes far beyond simply translating the word for word that I did in Greek class. You are a blessing and your ministry will bring the Word of God to so many people.

 

[Benjamin]

Seems to me you mentioned this work shortly after joining here at BB. I've often wondered about you finishing that translation. I can only imagine the work that had to go into it. Good to hear! Quite an accomplishment John!

 

[Just_Ahead]

Congratulations!

 

[MartyF]

What do the Japanese think about the translation?

 

[Rhetorician]

For those of you who have kindly commented and inquired over the years about our Japanese NT translation, we are done except for the final proofreading. (Anyone want to volunteer? ) Today my son and I finished correcting the last chapter (though he wants to take another look at a couple of chapters). God willing (and the proofreaders working), it will be printed and sent to Japan by the end of this year. On this thread I'll trace the rationale and history of the translation.

First of all, here is the rationale. There are two reasons my team and I did this translation. First of all, there is a conservative translation of the Bible used by fundamentalists and conservatives evangelicals in Japan. (It was financed by the Lockman Foundation, and done by the same method as the NASB.) However, an attempt by me to get permission for a missionary friend to print the Gospel of John ran into road blocks, and my friend gave up. Therefore, it would be great to have a translation anyone could print or use on the Internet without worrying about copyright restrictions.

Secondly, there is my position on the Greek text is Byzantine priority. Historically, there has only been one Japanese NT done from a Byzantine base, the Nagai Yaku of 1928, done from the Stephanus TR. However, that translation was done in very difficult classical Japanese, and furthermore is long out of print. Therefore, Japan is long overdue.

JOJ,

Good work, well done! But why the TR rather than the UBS text? I just dropped in, have not read the entire thread? So please forgive.

sdg!

rd

 

[TCassidy]

But why the TR rather than the UBS text?

I'm not John but I believe he, like me, considers the Byzantine Textform to more likely reflect the original readings.

 

[HankD]

I'm not John but I believe he, like me, considers the Byzantine Textform to more likely reflect the original readings.

A good choice IMO.

 

[John of Japan]

Hi, everyone. I have just a minute before the service. Things are hectic at the church right now, so I won't be able to answer everyone until Tuesday. At that time I will also divulge how our rendering of "baptize" and "baptism" was decided partly through a thread here on the BB!

 

[Baptist Believer]

Congratulations!

May your efforts bless tens of millions and be used of God for His mighty purposes!

 

[John of Japan]

John,
Congratulations on a hard job well done. There is so much involved in translation that goes far beyond simply translating the word for word that I did in Greek class. You are a blessing and your ministry will bring the Word of God to so many people.

Thanks for the kind words, Tom.

 

[John of Japan]

Seems to me you mentioned this work shortly after joining here at BB. I've often wondered about you finishing that translation. I can only imagine the work that had to go into it. Good to hear! Quite an accomplishment John!

Thanks for the kind words. It's been quite a journey!

The NT doesn't usually take 16 years to translate, but of course while we were in Japan I was a full time missionary and couldn't devote all of my time to it. Once Uncle Miya joined the team, I started spending all day every Friday on the task, and that eventually got the job done.

 

[John of Japan]

JOJ,

Good work, well done! But why the TR rather than the UBS text? I just dropped in, have not read the entire thread? So please forgive.

sdg!

rd

Hi, Rhet.

Thanks for dropping in. As Dr. Tom C. noted, I hold to Byzantine priority, following Dr. Maurice Robinson of Southeastern. (Have a great time in retirement, Dr. R.!) While I would have preferred to use the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform, I went with the TR because of our target constituency. (See the posts on Skopos Theory above.)

I have found a great consistency in the Byzantine mss. and texts that the Alexandrian texts (as in the UBS) do not have, and that has been a great encouragement that I'm using the right text. (See the various essays and articles by Dr. Robinson.)

JoJ

 

[John of Japan]

Congratulations!

May your efforts bless tens of millions and be used of God for His mighty purposes!

Amen! Thank you for the kind words.